Article
French
ID: <
10.3406/ktema.1995.2136>
·
DOI: <
10.3406/ktema.1995.2136>
Abstract
History, as founded by Herodotus, is neither pure inquiry, nor purely narrative process. To the main narrative, recounting and explaining the Persian Wars, Herodotus adds another history, that of the Median and Achaemenid Persian kings. He draws this part of his history, without knowing exactly what he does, from a number of narratives probably circulating in the Persian Empire, where they were part of the so-called “Royal Iranian Legend”, itself derived from the Indo-European ideology of sovereignty. Such an interpretation is by no means exclusive of any other.